Plus/minus is not a perfect stat but it does give you a broad idea of the kind of defensive effectiveness an individual player had.
When Cam Johnson said after the Clemson win on Tuesday that he had received an “F” grade for his performance at Notre Dame, I wasn’t exactly surprised. Johnson was a minus-7 in 30 minutes against Notre Dame. Given UNC won by a point, that negative number stands out.
Conversely, Johnson was a plus-7 in 28 minutes in the home win over Clemson on Tuesday.
Again, plus/minus isn’t the end-all, be-all but it does give you a snapshot of who had a good game defensively and who didn’t.